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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2014 13:12:46 GMT -5
Any fans of this character by Cuti & Staton?
There were 10 issues published by Charlton from 1973-75 & 25 issues published by First from 1983-85 (Marty Pasko & Joe Staton wrote most of this volume).
Does anyone know who holds the rights to the character? |
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E-Man
Aug 14, 2014 17:19:57 GMT -5
Post by Rob Allen on Aug 14, 2014 17:19:57 GMT -5
I thought Cuti & Staton still owned it, but Wikipedia says that "The indicia for each [of the three one-shots put out by Digital Webbing Press in the mid-2000s] listed E-Man as copyrighted by 'Joe Staton/First Comics'", with this quote from a Staton interview in 2001:
I bought the 10 original issues and liked them a lot. Recently I picked up a copy of one of the Comico issues.
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E-Man
Aug 14, 2014 19:24:26 GMT -5
Post by Icctrombone on Aug 14, 2014 19:24:26 GMT -5
I really enjoyed the First issues. I thought they were a great run but I'm afraid to re-read it for fear it might not hold up.
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Post by benday-dot on Aug 14, 2014 20:35:25 GMT -5
E-Man was my favourite of the 70's Charlton titles. It had fun, adventure, wry humour and great art. It was a book that I don't think would succeeded if it had been of the Big Two. Only Charlton had the right vibe to pull of this title on behalf of Cuti and Staton. There was almost an underground feel to it. If Charlton itself hadn't been in steady slide toward oblivion at the time of E-Man it might have done better, though no Charlton superhero books really ever caught mainstream fire.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Aug 15, 2014 6:12:30 GMT -5
I love the original 10 issue Charlton run, but haven't read any of the later series. To be honest, E-Man is the only Charlton comic I've ever enjoyed really. Great satirical and mildly subversive skewering of the superhero idiom, with some lovely Joe Staton artwork and a very memorable cast of core characters. Sure, some of the stories and/or villains were a bit crap-tastic, but in the context of the series it all really worked.
Also, as something of a late '60s/early '70s armchair historian, I love, love, LOVE all the little hidden references to then-contemporary culture and current events that are buried in Staton's artwork. A really fun comic book that is definitely of its time.
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shaxper
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E-Man
Aug 15, 2014 7:47:02 GMT -5
Post by shaxper on Aug 15, 2014 7:47:02 GMT -5
I've read two issues of E-Man in my life, one from the Charlton run and one from the later volume. Both times, I just didn't get the appeal.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2014 8:54:11 GMT -5
As I've said before, E-Man (which I believe I started buying with issue #2) pretty much ruined Joe Staton for me. I've never been able to take his style on straightforward superheroics, as opposed to a light, breezy strip like this one.
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E-Man
Aug 15, 2014 18:59:31 GMT -5
Post by Rob Allen on Aug 15, 2014 18:59:31 GMT -5
Another thing I liked about the Charlton run were the backup stories. Four of the ten issues had John Byrne's robot character Rog-2000, and three had Ditko stories with his Mr. A-style Randian heroes.
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Confessor
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E-Man
Aug 16, 2014 10:30:31 GMT -5
Post by Confessor on Aug 16, 2014 10:30:31 GMT -5
Another thing I liked about the Charlton run were the backup stories. Four of the ten issues had John Byrne's robot character Rog-2000, and three had Ditko stories with his Mr. A-style Randian heroes. Yeah, good call, Rob. The Ditko backup strips are very strange and shot through with Ditko's Randian philosophies, but I find that they're quite compelling reads. |
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E-Man
Aug 16, 2014 10:42:09 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 10:42:09 GMT -5
I've read two issues of E-Man in my life, one from the Charlton run and one from the later volume. Both times, I just didn't get the appeal. Do you like Plastic Man? I felt the series had an updated Plastic Man style & sense of humor in the stories. |
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E-Man
Aug 16, 2014 10:45:50 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 10:45:50 GMT -5
Another thing I liked about the Charlton run were the backup stories. Four of the ten issues had John Byrne's robot character Rog-2000, and three had Ditko stories with his Mr. A-style Randian heroes. I agree. Bryne's Rog-2000 & the Ditko stories were awesome. Personally I liked Ditko's Charlton work as much as his Spider-Man & Dr Strange stories at Marvel. His DC stuff wasn't as brilliant IMO.
And wasn't Rog-2000 Bryne's first comic book work?
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E-Man
Aug 16, 2014 11:40:26 GMT -5
Post by DubipR on Aug 16, 2014 11:40:26 GMT -5
Another thing I liked about the Charlton run were the backup stories. Four of the ten issues had John Byrne's robot character Rog-2000, and three had Ditko stories with his Mr. A-style Randian heroes. Wasn't there an Alex Nino back up story as well? |
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E-Man
Aug 16, 2014 21:50:21 GMT -5
Post by berkley on Aug 16, 2014 21:50:21 GMT -5
I really liked the first E-Man series at Charlton. I'd forgotten about the back-up features - yeah, great added value for the reader.
The second E-Man series in the 80s wasn't bad either, but didn't quite recapture the magic for me. My memory says they're still worth a look though if you enjoyed the first series.
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E-Man
Aug 18, 2014 14:52:57 GMT -5
Post by Rob Allen on Aug 18, 2014 14:52:57 GMT -5
Rog-2000 was close to being Byrne's first pro work - he had a 2-page story in a Skywald magazine first, and a Captain Atom story in a Charlton fanzine that was reprinted in the Action Heroes Archive.
There wasn't a backup by Alex Niño; are you thinking of Captain Fear, the backup strip he did in Adventure Comics?
In addition to the 4 Byrne and 3 Ditko backups in the original 10 issues, there was one backup story by Tom Sutton and one by Wayne Howard, and one issue with a full-length E-Man story.
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E-Man
Aug 18, 2014 15:01:18 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2014 15:01:18 GMT -5
About midway through the run, IIRC, a guy named Ronnie Blair had a letter published announcing that he wanted to correspond with other fans of the series, or something like that. Seems like he lived in Kentucky; might've been Tennessee. We exchanged a few letters. Main thing I remember is that he wrote them in pencil.
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